Publisher’s Comments:
The Marathon des Sables is billed as the toughest footrace on Earth.  It consists of around 150 miles of running across scorching desert plains and peaks, in temperatures soaring above 40 degrees C.  As if the distance, the heat and the terrain were not enough, the whole race must be completed carrying all the food and kit required for the seven days of the event.  In this book, exercise scientist Mark Hines takes us through both his training and the competition itself, as he goes from non-running optimist to ultra-endurance athlete.

Escape into a world outside of the ordinary.  Leave the comfort of your workplace to cling onto rock faces in Snowdonia, to wake up on beaches in Christchurch, and to walk from sunrise to sunset across the baking Egyptian Sahara.  All of this takes Mark from his mundane existence in London to his successful completion of the toughest footrace on Earth, the marathon of the sands.

Author’s Comments:
With an exercise background in strength training and martial arts, I thought that I had left my running days behind me when I finished school.  But, having seen a television documentary on the race, I decided that as an Exercise Scientist I had a duty to prove myself, to myself.  With two years of training, a whole host of things going on in my work and personal life, and one operation, I managed to develop myself from a non-runner to an ultra-endurance athlete, and ever since then I have caught the bug.  These are my first steps into a new way of life, and the book includes details of all the training that I incorporated along the way.  I believe that it is insightful, motivational and above all, fun!